News Items

On October 28, 1999 in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer sponsored a legislative briefing for Illinois lawmakers at the State of Illinois James R. Thompson Building. Dr. Joel Brind, the President of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, was one of two featured speakers at the briefing, which was well-attended by federal and state legislators, as well as members of the media. Dr. Brind informed lawmakers of the medical research linking Induced abortion with an increased risk of breast cancer. Dr. Brind has been doing research on the connection between reproductive hormones and human disease, including breast cancer, since 1982. While surveying the worldwide studies on breast cancer, he discovered the research on abortion-breast cancer link. As of this date, he has identified 26 out of 32 worldwide studies which show a connection between induced abortion and breast cancer. Dr.

April, 2001

On November 29, 2000 Karen Malec, President of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, and John Kindley, Esq. testified before the Illinois Senate Executive Committee in support of Senate Resolution 214, now called SR 8.  The resolution calls for a task force to investigate the abortion-breast cancer link. 

A representative from Planned Parenthood appeared, but did not publicly speak against the resolution.    Only one witness, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), testified against the resolution.  This is peculiar, considering the fact that the ACLU's George Annas once asserted in a patients' rights book that "even a 1 in 10,000 risk of death must always be disclosed." [George Annas, "The Rights of Patients: The Basic ACLU guide to Patient Rights," 86 (2d ed. 1992)].  Apparently, the ACLU has deviated from its own standard and raised the bar for the abortion-breast cancer risk.  One in every 100 women who procure abortions is expected to die.

British Physician, Thomas Stuttaford, Does About-Face on Abortion-Breast Cancer Link

June 19, 2001

It was only last year in an August 14, 2000 issue of The Times that Thomas Stuttaford, M.D. authored an article entitled, “Can Abortions Be Linked to Breast Cancer?” In this article, Dr. Stuttaford reassured British women that abortion is a safe procedure. He declared that, “As yet there is no evidence of a causative link between abortion and breast cancer,” and he incorrectly added that “none has been claimed by Professor (Joel) Brind.”

Less than a year later, on May 17, 2001 Stuttaford authored another article for The Times in which he revealed that he had reversed his position on the abortion-breast cancer research. In an article entitled “Fresh Line of Attack,” he wrote that:

“Breast cancer is diagnosed in 33,000 women in the U.K. each year; of these, an unusually high proportion had an abortion before eventually starting a family. Such women are up to four times more likely to develop breast cancer.

A SLAP IN THE FACE FOR BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH; 12 CONGRESSMEN WANT RE-PUBLICATION OF ERRONEOUS NCI WEB PAGE DISCUSSING ABC LINK

An international women’s organization today severely criticized 12 congressmen who demanded that Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson instruct the National Institutes for Health to re-post an erroneous web page on the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) website discussing the abortion-breast cancer (ABC) research.

On October 21, 2002, twelve House Democrats led by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (R-California), sent a letter of protest to Secretary Thompson accusing HHS of having allegedly allowed ideology to “subvert scientific decision making.” The Waxman group had several concerns, one of which included discussion of the ABC research appearing on a National Cancer Institute web page. They said, “Scientific information that does not serve the Administration’s ideological agenda is being removed from HHS websites.”

The 12 members of Congress offered no scientific support for their assertions by including a scientific fact sheet addressing the research. None of the members of the Waxman group is a physician.

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is pleased to announce that on December 10, 1999 it joined hands with Endeavour Forum, located in Toorak, Victoria, Australia. Babette Francis, National and Overseas Coordinator for Endeavour Forum, met with the coalition’s leaders at a hotel near O’Hare International Airport. Babette and her husband, Charles, have been spreading the word about the abortion-breast cancer link for a number of years. Charles Francis, a personal injury attorney, won a lawsuit in 1999 against a general practitioner who referred his client for an abortion, as well as the abortion clinic, the physician who performed the abortion and the clinic counselor. His client claimed that she suffered Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the abortion and that she had not been counseled properly before the abortion.

The second featured speaker at the October, 1999 legislative briefing sponsored by the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer was attorney John Kindley. Mr. Kindley authored a widely-read article, which received attention in Congress and was published in the Wisconsin Law Review entitled, “The Fit Between the Elements for an Informed Consent Cause of Action and the Scientific Evidence Linking Induced Abortion with Increased Breast Cancer Risk.” He discussed the legal liability which physicians face when they fail to inform abortion-bound patients of the increased risk of breast cancer. He explained that the information about the increased risk of breast cancer is material to a woman’s decision whether or not to procure an abortion and that there is sufficient evidence of a connection between abortion and breast cancer to impose a legal duty upon physicians to inform their patients.

A coalition led by Rachelle Sauvageau, the director of the Pro-Life Office for the Catholic Diocese of Fargo, North Dakota, has embarked on a newspaper, billboard and parish bulletin ad campaign to educate women about the abortion-breast cancer link. The ads contain the web address and the toll free number for the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, an international women's organization whose purpose is to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer. 

This ad campaign coincides with a lawsuit against a Fargo abortion provider, the Red River Women's Clinic, which had been distributing a pamphlet to its clients containing false and misleading statements about the research concerning the abortion-breast cancer link. The statement from the pamphlet says, "Anti-abortion activists claim that having an abortion increases the risk of developing breast cancer and endangers future childbearing. None of these claims are supported by medical research or established medical organizations." The plaintiff, Amy Jo Mattson, alleges false advertising and is seeking injunctive relief.

Ohio State Representative Calls For Abortion-Breast Cancer Task Force

Ohio State Representative Jean Schmidt announced her intentions to introduce a resolution which would create an Abortion-Breast Cancer Task Force. The measure was modeled after Illinois Senate Resolution 8 introduced by State Senator Patrick O’Malley in 2000. Its purpose would be to examine the 37 epidemiological studies published over the last 45 years which have explored a relationship between induced abortion and the disease and to study the available biological evidence supporting a causal relationship. Twenty-eight of the studies thus far have implicated abortion as a risk factor. 

Members of the task force would be charged with the duty to make recommendations to the legislature on how to create greater awareness of the abortion-breast cancer link. 

Schmidt promised to sponsor legislation requiring doctors to inform abortion bound women about the research if the task force concludes that there is a causal relationship. 

The House speaker would be required to appoint all members of the task force, except the minority member. 

A new study done by David Reardon of the Elliott Institute and Dr. Philip Ney, a British Columbia psychiatrist, specializing in post-abortion counseling, reports that, "Women who have an abortion are five times more likely to report subsequent substance abuse compared to women who carry to term." The study, which was published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, was the latest of at least 16 studies reporting such a link. Dr. Reardon estimates that there are 150,000 to 500,000 cases of abortion-related substance abuse each year. 

Substance abuse is a leading cause of neonatal death and malformation in pregnancy. Dr. Ney says, "I have found that women with resolved grief or trauma related to a prior abortion are more likely to feel anxiety, fear,and depression during subsequent pregnancies," Ney said. "If they are unable to legally obtain mood-altering drugs with a prescription, many of these women resort to alcohol or illegal drugs as a means of suppressing unwanted feelings about their past abortions."

FAMILY PLANNING DIRECTOR SAYS LAWSUITS ARE HURTING AUSTRALIAN ABORTION INDUSTRY, Australian Doctor, February 15, 2002

An article by the director of the Family Planning Association in Australia penned an article for the publication, Australian Doctor, which said that recent lawsuits filed against doctors and facilities performing abortions have begun to hurt the abortion industry. (February 15, 2002) Several lawsuits have been settled for quite large sums in cases in which women have alleged they were not warned about the abortion-breast cancer risk or possible psychological damage resulting from their abortions.

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, May 30, 2001 (RFM NEWS) On Tuesday, Senate Resolution 8 failed to pass the Illinois Senate.

Introduced by gubernatorial candidate, state Senator Patrick J. O'Malley [R-18, Palos Park], the Resolution would have created a five member task force to study the possible link between abortion and breast cancer.

Resolution 8, which needed 30 yes votes for passage, fell three votes short, by a margin of 27 (y) - 20 (n) - 1(p). Three Senators who were expected to vote yes missed the roll call vote on Senate Resolution 8, leaving the initiative to face a precarious future.

"This is not a pro-life issue and this is not a pro-choice issue," said Karen Malec, coordinator of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer and herself a cancer survivor. "Resolution 8 is about informing women of the overwhelming scientific information available on the subject. Who knows how many lives the suppression of this information might cost."

Dear Friends:

Australian attorney, Charles Francis, authored an article for the Winter 2003 issue of NLA Review, a publication of the National Lawyers Association. Francis is believed to have won the world’s first known abortion-breast cancer settlements. We are sharing his article with you.

Francis made two particularly important observations in his article. First, he quoted Justice Cardozo who said that:

"[e]very human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body; and a surgeon who performs an operation without his patient’s consent commits an assault for which he is liable in damages."

Francis wrote that Cardozo’s words are "still respectfully quoted as correctly summarising the law on this topic." He further observed that physicians are obliged to inform their patients of all material risks associated with a particular surgical procedure, even though it might not be the "self-created custom" of physicians to do so. He explained:

July 2, 2013

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

Coalition Letter Against U.S. Senate Bill 959

THOSE WISHING TO SIGN THE LETTER SHOULD CONTACT ANDY SCHLAFLY, Esq., General Counsel for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, by JULY 7, 2013 at aschlafly [at] aol.com (subject: Sign%20letter%20against%20S.%20959) ( ).

As advocates for patients, including the unborn, we oppose U.S. Senate Bill S.959 due to its very harmful impact on the ability of pregnant women to obtain affordable medication that protects against premature birth.  We also oppose S.959 for how it would vastly expand the power of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to write new regulations, which would likely include new interference by the FDA with adult stem cell treatments.

Dear Friends:

Researcher Brent Rooney recently brought to our attention a letter he sent to the Israeli Medical Association Journal. His letter, "Pregnancy-associated breast cancer and the Nuremberg Code," was published in January 2009. We are sharing that letter with you (below). 

First, an explanation is in order. Our readers may find the term, "pregnancy-associated breast cancer," confusing because childbearing is known to have a protective effect against breast cancer. Medical texts have long acknowledged that a first full term pregnancy (FFTP), especially an early FFTP before age 24, substantially decreases the long-term risk of breast cancer. The younger the woman is when she has her FFTP, the lower her breast cancer risk is. Having an early FFTP before age 24 is the single most important thing a woman can do to reduce her breast cancer risk.

COMMENTARY ON NEW YORK TIMES REPORTING
OF THE ABORTION-BREAST CANCER LINK

The New York Times has never cared to tell women the following inconvenient facts.

First, National Cancer Institute branch chief Louise Brinton acknowledged a second breast cancer risk associated with abortion in last year's study, Dolle et al. (by leaving the breasts with more places for cancers to start). [1]

Microbiologist Dr. Gerard Nadal is blowing the lid off the NCI's and Dr. Brinton's cover-up of the abortion-breast cancer (ABC) link with daily articles on his blog. See: http://gerardnadal.com/category/breast-cancer/

Second, the NCI, which has a record of publishing outright lies and making misleading statements about the ABC link on its website, has been accused of malfeasance on numerous occasions (which include accusations from Senator Tom Coburn, MD). The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, some scientists and physicians organizations called for a Congressional investigation in January 2010. [2]

U.S. Journalists 'Celebrate' a Carcinogen's Birthday / British Scientists Shill for the Pill

by Karen Malec, President, Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer

Karen Malec is a frequent contributor to RFFM.org.  Malec is the Founder and President of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer.

A free press and the dissemination of accurate information are among the elements needed for the continuation of a democratic republic. A free people must be educated and have access to truthful information in order to make decisions about the issues of the day, choose worthy candidates for office, participate in the legislative process and promote the common good.

One of the marks of a totalitarian government is one in which the flow of information is tightly controlled so that the attitudes and beliefs of citizens can be formed in a way that benefits the powerful. When journalists in a free society omit or misrepresent scientific evidence that is critical for making life-or-death health decisions, they violate a fundamental human right. Indeed, having the right to protect one's own life trumps every other right.

Dear Friends:

We need your help, so please be sure to read our Action Items at the end of this message!

We are excited about our new YouTube video reporting on the study, Dolle et al. 2009, in which U.S. National Cancer Institute scientist Louise Brinton and Dr. Janet Daling of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center appear as co-authors.

Dolle's team reported significant risk increases for women with abortions and users of oral contraceptives nine months ago, but the National Cancer Institute and cancer fundraising businesses have made no efforts to issue nationwide warnings to women.